John 8:12-20, CEB
Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Then the Pharisees said to him, “Because you are testifying about yourself, your testimony isn’t valid.”
Jesus replied, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, since I know where I came from and where I’m going. You don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. You judge according to human standards, but I judge no one. Even if I do judge, my judgment is truthful, because I’m not alone. My judgments come from me and from the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the witness of two people is true. I am one witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me is the other.”
They asked him, “Where is your Father?”
Jesus answered, “You don’t know me and you don’t know my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” He spoke these words while he was teaching in the temple area known as the treasury. No one arrested him, because his time hadn’t yet come.
In this passage, we encounter another of the seven “I AM” statements of Jesus found in the gospel of John. All reference Moses’s call story in Exodus 3 where Moses asks God to tell him who he should say is sending him to lead God’s people out of slavery in Egypt. God’s response is:
“I Am Who I Am. So say to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” (Ex 3:14)
So whenever we hear Jesus, in the gospel of John, say “I AM,” his hearers would have recognized the direct reference to the God of Moses.
“I am the light of the world,” spoken in the context of the Festival of Booths, conjures even more Old Testament imagery concerning the prophecies surrounding the Messiah. In John 7, we discussed Jesus’ alluding to the “rivers of living water” in Zechariah. Now he pulls another prominent image from that same chapter in Zechariah:
On one day known to the Lord, there will be neither day nor night,
but at evening time there will be light. (Zech 14:7)\
We’ve already discussed the central theme of light in John’s gospel and here, we hear Jesus identify Himself as that messianic light. Jesus invitation is to follow Him and by doing so, we experience “the light of life.” As we continue through John, we will talk more about this theme of light.
Following Jesus’ I AM statement, the religious leaders bring up an issue of the validity of Jesus’s witness. In Hebrew tradition, the validity of someone’s identity is confirmed by two witnesses that are not the person in question. One’s own witness about themselves is not valid unless two others confirm it. This is why the leaders object to Jesus’s witness about Himself.
Jesus turns the table on the leaders and questions their authority to make judgements about who He is. He then makes an astounding accusation:
“You don’t know me and you don’t know my Father.”
The accusation is lost on those accused because they think Jesus is referring to his earthly Father. But of course, we the readers of John, know that Jesus is referring to THE Father who is God. The irony of that is intentional.
The larger issue being raised by John here is that all the “human rules” that have been created to govern Israel’s collective relationship with God are exposed for what they are – HUMAN rules. An authentic revelation of who God is does not have to conform to those rules.
We are not immune to the same correction. God can, and if you live long enough, God WILL break your rules about our notion of who God “should” be and how God “should” act. Count on it. Expect it.
Question: How has God “broken your rules” in the past or present?
Prayer: Jesus, You are our light and You are light for the whole world. Shine into our dark places, even if it breaks our rules. Amen.
Prayer Concern: Pray for God to bless people who have made you mad recently.
Song: Here I Am to Worship – Chris Tomlin
Weekday Word w/ Eric 
Leave a comment